Parish prisoners would be able to work in
religious buildings including churches, synagogues and mosques under a proposed bill filed
in Baton Rouge Thursday, Feb. 21.
Bill sponsor state Sen. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, said he filed the bill at the
request of Rapides Parish Sheriff William Hilton.

Current Louisiana law
states sheriffs can approve parish prisoners for work
release programs on public
roads, levees, streets, public buildings, cemeteries, graveyards and solid
waste facilities. If passed, Gallot's bill would add "religious buildings" to
the list.

"From a policy standpoint, when you hear the
phrase, 'paying your debt to society,' I think this fits squarely within
[that]," Gallot said Thursday.

Hilton confirmed he asked for the bill, saying he
wanted to be able to offer prison labor to smaller rural churches without
nonprofit status. Gallot said he had not consulted with any religious
organizations or local churches before filing the bill.

Hilton also said he did not receive specific
calls from rural churches to request such a bill but said he knew, "they're
going to be all for it." Neither man said they expected religious officials to
have privacy or safety warnings with such a work-release program.

When contacted about the bill Thursday, officials from several
religious organizations said they were either still considering the bill or choosing not
to comment until the bill is considered in the legislative session beginning
April 8.

"We are in the process of
reviewing the bill and gathering more info on this," said Anna Toujas, communications coordinator for the Archdiocese of New
Orleans. Rabbi Alexis Berk of the Rabbinic Council of New Orleans has
forwarded the bill language to the council members.

Parish prisons are
paid $24.39 per inmate per day for inmates serving state time, less than half what state-run prisons
receive. For sheriffs like Hilton, work-release programs bring extra revenue to
house, feed and provide rehabilitation for parish prisoners.

Rapides Parish currently houses 315 work-release
offenders. In 2008, the program brought in nearly $4 million, paying for itself
and providing over $200,000 in net revenue. It was one of only two programs to net revenue, according to the 2008 sheriffs office budget.

The for-profit nature of Louisiana's local jails has made the Sheriffs
Association a powerful lobby in Louisiana, the world's
prison capital, while making reform of the system more
difficult, according to James Austin, a national prison expert.

"It makes it hard to
do reforms that lower the prison population, because you're affecting the local
economic engines that they provide," Austin told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in May 2012.

"It would be
different if everyone were in state facilities. It's a lot easier for the state
to close a state facility than for a state to close several small local
facilities that really provide economic fuel at the local level."